The 1930 NFL season was the 11th

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. Prior to the season,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

bootlegger Bill Dwyer bought the

Dayton Triangles The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangl ...

, moved them, brought on former

Orange Tornadoes The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from ...

star

Jack Depler John Charles Depler (January 6, 1899 – December 5, 1970) was a professional football player and coach. Prior to his professional career, he played college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team of the University of Illinoi ...

as a partner, and renamed them the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

. With this move, the league was able to keep the final franchise from the

Ohio League The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...

alive, albeit in a new location and with more skilled players, as it was unfeasible for the players in Dayton to move to Brooklyn during the Great Depression. The remains of the Tornadoes, with much of their roster now playing for the relocated Triangles-Dodgers franchise, moved to Newark. The

Portsmouth Spartans The professional American football team now known as the Detroit Lions previously played in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans, from its founding in 1928 to its relocation to Detroit in 1934. Originally drawing players from defunct indepe ...

(now known as the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

) joined the league, while the

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

and the Boston Bulldogs both folded. The

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

were named the NFL champions for the second consecutive year after they finished the season with the best record.

Teams

The league had 11 teams in 1930. ‡ Player/head coach George Gibson was one of the ten players that the

Minneapolis Red Jackets The Minneapolis Marines were an early professional football team that existed from 1905 until 1924. The team was later resurrected from 1929 to 1930 under the Minneapolis Red Jackets name. The Marines were owned locally by Minneapolitans John Dunn ...

sold to the

Frankford Yellow Jackets The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, although its origin dates back to as early as 1899 with the Frankford Athletic Association. The Yellow Jackets won ...

after Minneapolis folded following a 1–7–1 start to the season. This enabled Gibson to also serve as player/head coach for Frankford for five games late in the season.

Championship race

Defending champion Green Bay won its first eight games, including a 14–7 home win over the New York Giants on October 4. By Week Nine, Green Bay was at 8–0–0 and New York right behind them at 10–1–0. On November 16, the Packers lost to the Cardinals 13–6, but in New York, the Giants fell to the Bears, 12–0. On November 23, a crowd of 37,000 turned out as the Packers and the Giants met at the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...

in New York. The Giants' 13–6 win in Week Eleven gave it the lead, 11–2–0 (.846) to the Packers' 8–2–0 (.800). Missed extra points had a big effect, as four days later, the Giants were beaten on

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

by Staten Island, 7–6, while Green Bay defeated Frankford 25–7 to retake the lead at 9–2–0 (.818) to New York's 11–3–0 (.785). The Giants faltered again on Sunday, November 30, when Brooklyn beat them 7–6, again on a missed point after. In Week Thirteen, the Giants beat the Yellow Jackets, 14–6, while the Packers lost to the Bears, 21–0, cutting Green Bay's hold on first place to a mere 4/10ths of a percentage point, .769 to .765. The Giants finished their season at 13–4–0, while 10–3–0 Green Bay had a final game at Portsmouth: a loss would have given the Packers a 10–4–0 finish and a .714 percentage, giving the Giants, at .765, the championship, while a tie (10–3–1 and .769) or win (11–3–0 and .785) would give Green Bay the 1930 title, their second in a row. Once again, the point after decided the race. On December 14, the Packers scored on Red Dunn's touchdown pass to Wuert Engelmann, but the point after by Verne Lewellen failed, giving them a 6–0 lead. After Chuck Bennett ran for a touchdown for the Spartans, the extra point attempt by Tiny Lewis was blocked, and when the game ended, the 6–6 tie gave the Packers the 1930 title. "Green Bay Wins Pennant As Spartans Tie", ''Portsmouth Times'', Dec 15, 1932, p10 Had the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half a win and half a loss been in place in 1930, the tie would have given the Giants (13–4–0, .765) the title, and Green Bay would have finished runner-up at .750.

Standings

References

* ''NFL Record and Fact Book'' ()
NFL History 1921–1930
(Last accessed December 4, 2005) * ''Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League'' () {{NFL seasons

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...